Nigel Burbidge
Being someone who models the East Anglian area I don’t have any panniers of any variety but I have converted a couple of Accurascale buckjumpers to EM. Yes, I did have to bush the axles so a 2mm axle fitted a 1/8” wheel centre but that seems to work OK (using a GW wheel press). Also the coupling rods are one piece and for a loco with as short a wheelbase as the buck that really isn’t an issue. I know of others who have also converted bucks to EM and have used the Gibson universal coupling rods to get a more flexible chassis and that also worked.
Nigel